


Live a Little

by orphan_account



Category: Twilight (Movies), Twilight Series - All Media Types, Twilight Series - Stephenie Meyer
Genre: Adultery, Bisexual Bella, Bisexual Female Character, Bisexuality, Drama & Romance, F/F, F/M, Family Issues, Female Jacob OC, LGBTQ Character, LGBTQ Character of Color, LGBTQ Themes, Lemons, Lesbian Character, Romantic Fluff, Sexuality, lesbian Jacob, unhappily married
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-06
Updated: 2019-07-07
Packaged: 2020-06-23 14:18:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,094
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19703098
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Bella Swan - the poster girl for normality, is probably the least interesting person you could ever meet, who at age 23 has a daughter, a husband and a favourite detergent brand. But then, in a chance encounter with Julia, she has a chance to change this and finally Live a Little. (Female Jacob OC, contains lemons)





	1. Ice, Magazines and Adam Sandler

The sun rose on a chilly Sunday morning, and the dark haired woman shivered as she pulled the collar of her blue coat up against the cold. Her heeled boots slid slightly on the icy tarmac, and she cussed under her breath, and continued to walk on the grass, which crunched beneath her feet. Bella had never had an excellent balance, and didn’t quite feel like a visit to A and E today. It had been unseasonably cold for October, and Bella was hyper aware of this as she carried her shopping through the suburban park. Renesmee had stayed at Charlie’s all weekend, and she knew that her young daughter had a unique bond with her aging grandfather - it was if they could communicate telepathically, knowing exactly which LEGO brick had to go where or which crayon was the perfect match for her bronze ringlets.

She ached for that sort of relationship with, well... anyone. Charlie had always been hilariously abysmal at interpreting her feelings, and Edward was always quiet, seldom laughing, and only at things that Bella found excruciatingly unfunny. But they got on fine, taking turns to take Nessie to school and equally dividing homework and bath duty, but their jobs meant that they spent little time alone together, since Bella was always long gone by the time he awoke, and was occasionally asleep by the time that he returned from work, since he preferred to mark papers at the silence of the campus instead of the noise of their small London flat.

But they were alone today, and Bella was unsure what to feel about this, she wanted to feel excited, glad or at least a single recognisable emotion, but she was strangely ambiguous about it, and hoped that her morning excursion would help clear things up. However as her block of flats loomed ever closer, she realised it was a wasted effort, still just as confused as she was when she first left the tiny apartment.

When Edward heard the familiar rattle of his wife’s keys in the door, he took a deep breath and tried to mentally prepare for the day ahead in the few seconds it took her to unlock the perpetually jammed door. You are glad he pathetically thought to himself, just as emotionally unperturbed as Bella, well, he could certainly sense nervousness in there somewhere, which is at least something.

“Hey b-“ he got out before he began to splutter and cough for a long moment, leaving his wife with a stupid smile on her face for too long “Hey babe” he eventually managed, his voice hoarse.

Bella took this as a cue to drop the smile, turning to place her shopping on the kitchen counter before hurriedly kissing him on the cheek.

“Hey babe, fancy a DVD?” She said, nodding over at their meagre selection of movies.

“Sure, yeah, how’s about... Jack and Jill?” Bella winced at this, but was surprised at Edward’s diplomacy at this choice, knowing full well they’d hate it equally, so at least it was fair.

“Yeah, go for it” She said with a noncommittal smile as she removed her navy coat to expose a burgundy woolen jumper that she adored (or had at least learned to, due to the price tag).

She placed herself down on their cream sofa, which had stopped being spotless a long time ago, since messes abound when one has a five year old running about. Edward began to load the DVD, the flatscreen tv flickering to life as he did so and Bella, the moment the title screen flashed up, prepared herself for the single most uncomedic comedy she had ever had the misfortune to watch.

An hour and forty minutes later, Bella peeled herself from the couch, the most bemused that she’d been in her life, and decided that if she was doing everything she hated all at once, she might as well buy a magazine as well. She was really just fishing for excuses to leave the claustrophobic flat, and was dying for some fresh air. Edward grunted affirmatively when she donned her coat and exclaimed to the room in general that she was leaving to go to the off-license down the road.

The icy cold wind hit her in the face as she stepped out into the frosty midday sun (sun being a bit of a poetic stretch for bugger all), at least this time Bella had remembered to properly wrap up, mittens and all. Everything was colour coordinated, because that was so Bella, and if you think this was extreme, we are talking about the woman who actually goes to the dentist when she recieves the postcard telling her it’s time for a checkup.

“Hello” She chirped to the familiar man behind the counter, who she mostly saw whenever they were out of milk and so desperate they were willing to pay two pounds for it.

“That’ll be three pound” the blotchy faced shopkeeper grunted, and since his prices were quite that offensive and Bella was generally having a pretty shit day, she muttered fuck it under her breath and inhaled deeply

“Also, can I have 20 Rothman blue king size” she said, giving up on her carefree facade.

“Twelve pound” he grunted after a while, clearly not used to the logistics of a customer buying more than one item. She grimaced at the thievery going on before her, but paid it anyway, replacing her mittens tentatively after she tucked the magazine and the cigarettes into her handbag

When the door shut behind her with the tinkle of a bell, Bella paused, unsure about what her plan was now. She had always kept a lighter in her bag (well, not so much kept as not taken out), and strongly debated whether to just throw caution to the wind and light one, but she had been doing so well and couldn’t stand the disappointed look on Edward’s face when she sat back down on the couch stinking of smoke. He had first talked her off them when Bella was seventeen, trying to ground her rebellious ways, and then she’d gotten pregnant aged eighteen, and never regained the habit. She knew it was bad for her, but she honestly couldn’t care less. With a pained grunt, she dropped onto a bench, cigarette free, and to distract herself, picked up the sickeningly gregarious magazine, promising her the best sex of her life if she turned to page fifteen.

Instead she scanned the front page, coming to terms with the fact that she had just wasted three pounds on this crock of shit, when one of the eyewateringly bright titles caught her eye. I

It read: In a rut? Tired of the same routine? Follow our five steps and learn to Live a Little!

Bella rolled her eyes at this, but for the sake of morbid curiosity combined her with a desperate urge not to have just thrown away three quid on a magazine, turned to the indicated page and felt her eyes flitting left to right as she absorbed the brightly coloured and vernacular filled text, but the basic message was becoming clearer as she read on: get out of your comfort zone, try new things, take a chance, be impulsive.

None of these things sounded at all Bella, but that’s why it fascinated her so, she had been constantly bombarded with the many hijinks and adventures of Jessica and Angela, Facebook friends from a different era, an era when Bella had smoked, gone out and gotten pregnant at eighteen. The only reminders of this age were their sunny pictures and mountainous backgrounds that filled her with the memory of adrenaline coursing through her veins. She missed it, if she was being honest, yet she wasn’t.

Bella flicked to the front cover, light snow beginning to dampen it, and reread the title, over and over, but only comprehending the same phrase repeatedly, and came to the final decision that it was now time to Live a Little.

Thanks a bunch to my bestie Anna for agreeing with me that the first chapter was shit, hope you enjoy this one better (I know I do). Thanks to everyone for supporting this story, it really gives me the motivation to write more, got chapter 4 in the works, currently at 6k words and I’m not even finished yet. It’s a cracker - lots of love,

Gemma


	2. An encounter

Bella awoke with a start, blinded by the brightness of the early morning sun in her face. When she raised her head, she saw Renesmee, straddling her playfully, with her long brown hair resembling a birds’ nest. Nessie flashed her mother a grin, exposing her missing teeth. This was hardly out of character for her, but Bella was constantly amazed by her daughter’s youthful exuberance, and tried her best to be grateful for it before Nessie became a teenager...

“Come on mum, I’m hungry and daddy wouldn’t wake up” Bella glanced to her left and confirmed that Edward was indeed dead to the world, she didn’t remember him coming to bed so it must have been past midnight when he joined her, Edward always stayed on the couch until at least eleven PM without fail, but at least it meant that Bella had the bed to herself.

“Alright, munchkin, but we’re not going anywhere if I can’t get up” Bella poked her ribs playfully and she giggled and hopped off, with an unnatural vigour for half seven in the morning.

Quarter to eight - Nessie was sat at the kitchen counter, eating as much cereal as she was spilling everywhere, as Bella took a brush to the nest that had taken residence on Renesmee’s head, fashioning her own into a bun at the nape of her neck.

Eight - Renesmee was stood at the door, gouging a dent into the frame with her shoe, as Bella rushed around gathering Nessie’s school things, high heeled boots click clacking about relentlessly, her hairstyle becoming fashionably messier, and wearing an open plaid shirt with a black tank top beneath it and jeans. Bella couldn’t exactly dress up for work but she wouldn’t wish a pant suit on her worst enemy, glances at her watch every two seconds only heightening her stress levels and she practically lobbed Nessie’s backpack at her in her hurry to get out the door, slamming it behind her with enough force to wake Edward, who’s sleep could evidently manage to withstand almost all of his daughter’s tantrums.

Half eight - Bella breathed a sigh of relief as she waved Nessie goodbye through the school gates and turned the ignition in her Volvo XC70, the familiar growling noise calming her nerves. Bella reached into her nondescript handbag, retrieving the unopened cigarettes, a million thoughts and emotions swirling through her mind. She deliberately slit the wrapper with her thumb, her internal monologue (which spoke with Edward’s voice) screaming at her, and realised she couldn’t justify her one vice to herself. With a sigh, she returned the familiar blue box to her bag, doubtless to be taken out and pondered over yet again later on in the day. Conflicted and angry, Bella’s patience had finally worn thin, and so she flipped off another mum who cut her off, an act quite out of character for her, and sped further into the city.

When she finally entered Bean and gone, the one place that had offered Bella a job when she was a nineteen year old with a daughter and a failed education, the waft of coffee physically knocked her back a step, meaning it must be a restock day. Steeling herself, Bella approached Mike, the owner and resident arsehole of the coffee shop.

“Hey Mike, how was your weekend?” She asked with a sickly smile, it couldn’t do any harm to try and weasel into his good books, right? “It was nothing much, met my girl’s parents for her dad’s birthday” He replied dismissively, eyeing her with suspicion and giving no indication that he gave a shit about any of the people he had mentioned.

“Am I to assume there’s only one girl, then?” She asked, her voice dripping with mock-astonishment. “Has someone finally caught up with Mike ‘Ladykiller’ Newton?” Bella smirked whilst donning her apron. “Evidently so, Cullen, and by the way I’m gonna need you to be on bathroom watch, we don’t want a repeat of last Wednesday” He wrinkled his nose, whilst Bella was torn between disgust, and amusement at how quickly he had changed the subject. Bella’s boss didn’t exactly have a reputation for being the most down-to-earth person. She rolled her eyes and donned her tattered apron, taking her familiar place at the till. It’s not like she didn’t like it at the coffee shop, the atmosphere, the noise, the people - it was nice to be just a two dimensional smiling face every now and then, at least no one felt obliged to ask her how her day was.

“Would you like an extra shot of espresso for 20p?” Bella chirped for the thirty second time that morning, and for the thirty second time the customer before her gave a dismissive grunt and trundled on to pay. The man looked to be around sixty, with a navy baseball cap and a protruding jaw - Bella thought he looked like someone about to go off to a museum or art gallery - she bet his wife was off having a reconciliation dinner with their son who had just graduated medical sch-

“What was that, sorry?”

“I would just be askin’ where the sugar was” the man repeated shortly, his words lisping around the few remaining teeth he posesssd.

“Just over there” Bella indicated, pointing over his shoulder to the the milk and sugar desk (for want of a better term, this is what Bella had taken to calling it). The man grunted and was gone, and Bella had only just finished watching him walk away when a polite cough again dragged her back to reality. She snapped her head round to the customer, her trademark smile plastering itself onto her face, when she did a small double take. At this time in the morning, it was usually a groggy commuter that she was serving, but the woman before her was neither of those things - what Bella noticed immediately about the stranger was her height, which was considerably larger than Bella’s 5ft 4 even if she tried to accentuate her height in heels, the next thing was her face, which consisted of russet skin stretched taut over a narrow jaw and prominent cheekbones, this paired with her brownish-green eyes gave her a raw, earthy energy that was unlike anything Bella had ever seen before. She could feel herself becoming jittery over this tall, dark stranger and focused all of her attention on being as blasé and cool as possible.

“So...uh...are you okay? I mean- do you want anything? Coffee, I mean... but... yes?” Bella could have kicked herself for rambling on like that but she was instead focused on trying to cool down her face which was getting pinker by the second.

“Umm...” The stranger lifted her warm eyes to the menu above Bella’s head, absent-mindedly running a hand through her short, dark hair whilst she scanned it briefly (a bit of a faux pas at a coffee shop, but Bella was in no rush for this stranger to leave)

“A medium cappuccino to go, please” For the first time their eyes met as the stranger flashed her an amused grin at Bella’s flustered expression. Bella wanted the ground to swallow her up as she span around and got to making the coffee, hardly paying attention as her hands went through the actions they have gone through thousands of times

“Would you like an extra shot of espresso for 20p?” Bella chirped, her back still turned so she could concentrate solely on the words, instead of the person she was saying them to.

“I’m certain you’re tired of hearing this, but I’m fine, thank you”

Understatement of the year Bella thought to herself as she accepted the 5 note the stranger had slid over the counter to her.

“Chocolate on top?” She asked, counting out 3 to give as change

“I’m not a complete monster, chocolate would be great thanks” The woman grinned at her yet again Did she not know how debilitating that was?

“H-here’s your coffee,” Bella placed the finished drink on the counter “and your change” She placed the pound coins into the stranger’s outstretched palm, and their fingers brushed together, just for a fleeting second, but it was enough.

Bella gasped aloud, the woman’s hand was warm, very warm, as if she had a fever.

“Are you alright?” The dark haired woman asked, concern playing across her brows.

“Yes, I-uh... you’re very hot, I mean.. your hand was... warm- are you ill? I’m sorry-“

“I’m fine. Thank you, Bella”

The woman smiled genuinely and strode off, leaving a very red faced Bella behind her. She knew the stranger had read her name from her apron, but it still felt nice to hear her say it. Bella closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and plastered on her trademark smile for the next customer.

Bella groaned, her watch read 16:45 and no one wanted a coffee at 16:45. Ever. So came the daily tradition of twiddling her thumbs for a quarter of an hour. For an enormous amount of time (which was around two minutes), Bella stared out into the distance, thanking her lucky stars that her bathroom cleaning expertise hadn’t been required, but she swiftly became bored of this and elected to start emptying the till.

She entered her ID and the drawer opened with a satisfying ca-shing. She took out the notes and began to count them, five...ten...fifteen...twenty... but then something fell out of the wad, a small slip of paper fluttered onto the floor. Bella replaced the notes and bent down to pick it up. She unfolded the small slip and read it, and as she did, a million and one emotions flooded through her brain (too many for 16:47 on a Monday). It read:

I’m not exactly the give-my-number-to-a-barista type but I’d like to get to know you.

07982 459063

Julia ;)

Bella paled, then flushed. She had a mind to rip the paper up and forget about the woman, but she folded the paper - paused - and slipped it into her pocket. I’d like to get to know you too... Julia.


End file.
